Days ago, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington, Secretary of State Kerry undertook to declare the 1823 Monroe Doctrine ended. Beginning by saying that he was ‘happy to be here’ because it is such a short drive from his office, Kerry called for a ‘partnership of equals’ before immediately launching into Monroe-Doctrine-like language about Cuba and Venezuela. This editorial from Mexico’s La Jornada pans the speech, suggesting that if the secretary genuinely wants to improve U.S. relations with Latin American countries, he might try dispensing with condescending language that appears to contradict itself from one sentence to next.
The La Jornada editorial starts off this way:
Monday, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), Secretary of State John Kerry assured members that the era of the Monroe Doctrine has ended, and that now, Washington desires to share responsibility with other countries on the continent and make decisions as partners, in the context of a relationship of equals.
Immediately after that, the secretary contradicted himself, indicating on his own and without consulting anyone, an order of priorities for the region: promoting democracy (the U.S. way), improving education, and adopting new environmental protection measures. At the same time, Kerry mentioned the slogan of boosting cooperation in the area of security, and of particular concern for Mexico since it augurs additional pressure to privatize its petroleum industry, development of the energy sector.
If pretensions of dictating the agendas of sovereign nations isn’t bad enough, the senior U.S. diplomat, as expressed in his newly synthesized Monroe Doctrine, exposed for everyone the extent to which his country’s traditional interventionism into the affairs of other states remains intact, launching into a criticism of the governments in Cuba and Venezuela for domestic issues Washington has no right to opine about.
In all of its incoherence and even grotesqueness, Kerry’s speech reflects a certain implicit recognition of the loss of U.S. influence in the rest of the Americas.
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